Castleford Tigers halfback Danny Richardson is facing a further three months on the sidelines with his neck injury.
Richardson has been out since the opening week of the season and Castleford now have an idea on the extent of the injury and a timescale for his recovery.
“I think Danny’s going to be 11 to 12 weeks,” said Tigers head coach Lee Radford. “It’s pretty long-term.
“I know there’s a form of fracture in there, and it’s eight weeks with a brace on. Past that he’ll have to strengthen everything up around there.
“Round one it’s probably not the news that Danny or the club wanted, but it’s the cards we’ve been dealt, and we’ll be even more reliant on Truey and Gaz O’Brien to grab the team by the horns.”
Radford also said that there were a few fresh injuries ahead of their home clash with Hull FC on Sunday, but will keep secret the players ruled out until the squads are named on Friday.
Adam Milner won’t be playing any part, however, with his back injury proving more troublesome than initially thought.
“We’re still struggling with Adam,” said Radford. “He went to see the specialist yesterday. It’s just a guessing game (when he’ll be back).”
The Castleford boss also provided an update on Jake Mamo, who has been going through the concussion protocols.
“He went for a scan yesterday and they’ve actually found a brain, which is a result,” he joked. “He was light training today, which is a positive.”
Radford has lost all three of his Super League matches in charge so far but had some fighting talk ahead of a reunion with old club Hull.
He said: “Our backs are against the wall, we’re thin (on numbers), we’re getting uppercut after uppercut every week it seems, so we’ve got to come out swinging.”